Beyond Here

This post is from my phone. For this Wednesday I am sharing a picture of Maligne Lake in Jasper. Surrounded by snow capped peaks, it makes for a perfect alpine Lake. For more watery wednesday posts, click here Published with Blogger-droid v1.4.7

That summer (the summer we visited Banff and Jasper) was definitely the summer of bear sightings for us. It started with seeing a sow and 2 cubs cross the road right in front of our car on our drive over to Yosemite, followed by numerous sightings at Denali, peaked with being almost next to notorious grizzlies in Katmai and then ended with seeing another sow guide her 2 cubs near a river in Jasper. We were taking a break to take in the scenery while driving over to Maligne Lake in Jasper. Mr. S has this magnificent tunnel vision when it comes to spotting wildlife. He suddenly exclaimed - "Bear!". Right there, below the cliff where we were standing, emerged a sow with her cubs from under some bushes. We followed them for quite some time as they made their way along the river but maintained a respectable distance. A few more people driving by stopped when they saw us looking down so keenly beside the cliff. After sometime though, the bears just wa...

Lake Pyramid From Banff, we made our way further up north to Jasper National Park. Jasper turned out to be bigger and less crowded. Less crowds meant there were times when there was hardly anyone in sight and we would have the whole place to ourself. Again lots of lake visiting and hiking around lakes happened in Jasper. Our first visit was to Lake Pyramid. Very quiet and hardly anyone there except for a few kayakers at one end of the lake. From Lake Pyramid we went on to Lake Anne. Not too many people - now that might be just because my husband and I are early risers but there were a few people here sitting beside the lake and enjoying their books. I remember making a mental note to self - "Bring a book next time". Lake Anne People keep raving about Banff, but I definitely preferred Jasper to Banff. It was a larger park with much fewer crowds and much more wildlife sightings than in Banff. Walking and sitting around these lakes I felt one with nature and with mysel...

For this wednesday I chose this picture of Peyto Lake in Banff National Park along the Icefield Parkway. Pretty much all lakes in Banff had this turquoise blue color which also had a milky touch to it. But what stuck out about this lake was its weird shape - it looked like a bear. For more watery wednesday posts, click here

There are 2 parallel routes one can take between Banff and Lake Louise while driving. The faster one is Highway 1 or the Icefield Parkway. The slower is called Highway 1A. Before heading out on our trip, I had written in to a couple of friends to ask for recommendations on things to do in the area and one of the strong recommendations I got back from both was to definitely take Highway 1A atleast once - its slower but more scenic. We had just started on 1A when we came across this bull elk grazing by the road. And further up there were a few distinguishable mountains one of which I remember was called Castle Mountain.  (Note to self - should blog sooner so I remember more details. :( ) Castle Mountain There were quite a few more spots for picture taking along this stretch of the drive, but it is this last picture that I really like. I have always wanted to photograph aspen tree trunks, expecially after I saw a B&W picture of the same by Ansel Adams. A...

There are a few trails around Lake Louise and we decided to do the tea house trail. I would call it a moderate trail, not too easy, not too difficult, about 4.5 miles long and 1200 odd feet of elevation gain. Really it took us about 2 hours or so to reach the top. There is a tea house up there to refuel if you need to and then head back down. Views along the trail I remember there was some sort of bear warning in effect because Mr. S and I wore our bear bells - just tied small bells on our backpack and shoes. It was a shame though, because the trail was fairly busy and so no bear in sight. Mr. S soon removed his bells but I marched ahead - chhum chhum chhum. No wonder Mr. S  kept trailing behind or leading ahead to take pictures - he was most likely embarassed. :) Lake Agnes There were a couple of lakes on the way whose name I forget before we reached Lake Agnes with the teahouse next to it. Serene, quite and small - are the words that come to mind now that I th...

My current blog posts go well with the watery wednesday theme since the Canadian Rockies are literally studded with gem colored lakes. This one is of Lake Louise, taken from I believe the 10th floor of Fairmont Chateau Lake Louise . For more watery wednesday posts, click here

Lake Louise Though our first visit was to Lake Moraine, it was Lake Louise that formed the base for our travels in the area. The larger area is conserved as a national park called the Banff National Park. And we spent about 4 days driving and hiking around in this area. I had never seen such turquoise blue waters as those of Lake Louise - it was huge, serene and there were ice capped peaks in the distance. And unlike Lake Moraine, by the time we reached here, the sun was shining. It brought warmth to our spirits too. Walk along the lake We were eager to explore and on the first evening itself we strolled over to the other side of the lake. From that side, you could see the lake with the Fairmont hotel at the end. Its a luxurious hotel and our stay here was good. I had managed to convince Mr. S that it was ok to indulge once in a while. Though I must add that for the price we paid (even after we got a hefty discount because of some deal that was going on) the size of the room ...

Lake Moraine A colleague mentioned yesterday that she was going to visit the canadian rockies. And I thought of passing on some tips to the place since we visted it a couple of years back. Generally its easy - I just point people to my blog. But here I noticed that our trip to the Canadian Rockies had completely missed mention on my blog. The reason for not blogging about this trip, I will disclose in due course but for now the next few posts will be on our very wonderful trip to this region. I will start with some pictures on one of the most scenic lakes in the area - Moraine Lake. Its close to Lake Louise, its bigger and more famous sister lake. A detour of about 15-20 minute drive takes you to this gem colored lake nestled in a valley surrounded by 10 peaks. It was a cloudy, drizzly day when we visited that lake. We could manage only a couple of hikes around the lake - one was to the top of some rock boulders that afforded a high view of the lake and the other was along...